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Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures aetherial, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect! what no eye can see, No glass [microscope] can reach! from Infinite to thee, From thee to Nothing! --- On superior pow'rs Were we to press, inferior might on ours: Or in the full creation leave a void, Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd: From Nature's chain, whatever link you strike, Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. |
| Alexander Pope, Essay on Man |